A critical review of the observed properties of molecular outflows from young stellar objects is presented; it is shown that these properties can be explained by a model in which the molecular flow is driven solely by a collimated jet. From consideration of the conservation of vector momentum, it is deduced that energy-driven flows cannot produce the observed distribution of the momentum direction. Outflows are therefore most likely driven by collimated jets with strongly cooling shocks at the point where they interact with the molecular cloud. If the ages of molecular outflows are about 200,000 yr, then the observed jets have sufficient momentum flux to drive them, without invoking any other wind component. A simplified analysis of the interaction between jets and molecular clouds is presented, and the appearance of a jet-driven flow is calculated.
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Masson et al. (1993) studied this question.